Two different supply voltages are used when driving an injector. A boost voltage is used for fast injector needle opening and a battery voltage is used for maintaining a needle position. A boost converter may be a specific circuit inside a controller, inside an ECM (Electronic Control Module) or inside an ECU (Engine Control Unit) that generates the boost voltage. The battery supplies power to the boost converter for generating the boost voltage. Limitations in electronic architecture however cause extra-power consumption when boost voltage is generated from the battery voltage. This extra-power consumption may appear because regulation of a boost voltage provided by the boost converter to the injector may not be optimized in terms of power efficiency. Moreover, for the same reason, also the accuracy of a current regulation may be degraded. This phenomenon of insufficient optimization may depend on variations of the boost voltage level and on variations of the battery voltage level. Consequently, an inadequate current regulation might drive an extra-power consumption. Current regulation is affected by variations in the boost voltage level and battery voltage level. Such variations in a voltage level may be difficult to compensate, in particular to compensate using software.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide for an efficient boost voltage and boost current supply. In addition, it is desirable to provide for a switching signal generating apparatus that generates an effective switching signal for producing a boost voltage and/or a boost current. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.